Attorney Joseph E. Balmer is head of the estate planning and probate department at Holzfaster, Cecil, McKnight & Mues and is one of only 17 attorneys in the Dayton, Ohio area to be certified specialist in estate planning and probate administration.
Many individuals first think about estate planning when they get married. They realize that, at a minimum, they should have a will, general power of attorney and power of attorney for health care. They may later amend these documents due to life changes or changes in their financial position. However, one might be surprised to know that a recent survey by PNC Wealth Management disclosed that 30% of adults with financial assets of $500,000 or more did not have a will! A recent Harris Interactive survey of the general population found that 58% of all adults had no will. One might be even more surprised that if he or she had a will and became divorced, he or she may be no better off than if he or she had no will.
Fortunately, under Ohio law, if one is divorced, unless the will specifies otherwise, one’s … Read More... “Why One Should Not Postpone Post-Divorce Estate Planning”
Growing up in a small and rural community in Southwestern Pennsylvania, I was truly fortunate to be reared by a hard-working Father and a loving “stay-at-home” Mother. She taught the four of us so many things by example and by so many proverbs. One of her favorites was “You get what you pay for!” To her, that meant that you purchased fewer items of high quality personal goods or articles of clothing rather than more items of lesser quality or durability.
I have been practicing law now for a little over 30 years. It is impossible to describe all the change I have seen in my practice over the years. They range from electric typewriters to voice recognition software to multi-function copiers that can print, scan and send faxes and emails; and almost everyone has a computer and is computer savvy. Ah yes, computers. My first experience with a computer was in 1968 when students were required in my eighth grade class to take “Introduction to Computers.” I would never have predicted then how much those large, clunky devices would change our lives forever!
Valentine’s Day is the start of the busy season for Dayton divorce lawyers. Many couples wait until after the holidays and it gives them time to file their taxes “jointly” and receive a larger refund. It also can be a reckoning day when people decide that they deserve better.
An Ontario, Canada, Superior Court Judge issued a thorough well-reasoned but very unusual decision on January 16, 2009, changing custody of three (3) girls, ages 15, 11 and 9, from their primary caregiving mother to the father based upon evidence of a long pattern of parental alienation. In fact, Mother had denied Father, a vascular surgeon, any contact with the girls for about two (2) years before these proceedings.
I spent part of my holiday vacation watching 10 hours of “Band of Brothers,” the HBO mini-series based on the experiences of the 506th parachute infantry regiment in World War II. Each program was preceded by interviews with the actual soldiers upon whom the story was based. These men spoke eloquently of their dedication to the cause of freedom and to each other.
Ohio Revised Code Section 3109.051(A) provides, in part, that, “Whenever possible, the order or decree permitting the parenting time shall ensure the opportunity for both parents to have frequent and continuing contact with the child, unless frequent and continuing contact by either parent with the child would not be in the best interest of the child.” In 2006, a bill was introduced in the Ohio Senate to allow Juvenile or Domestic Relations Courts to grant a reasonable amount of “electronic communication” between a parent and a child so long as the electronic communication was in the child’s best interest and the equipment was readily available. In Senate Bill 341, electronic communications was defined as “communication facilitated by the use of methods of communication such as the telephone, electronic mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, or other wired or wireless technologies via the internet, or another medium of communication that allows a party who has been granted parenting time, companionship, or visitation rights to communicate with a child during …